Hanselman on the Verge of Four-Peat

The smallmouth smackdown on the Ohio River continued on day two of the Rayovac FLW Series Championship in Paducah, Ky., hosted by the Paducah Convention & Visitors Bureau and the City of Paducah.

Heading into Saturday’s championship round, the top-5 positions on the leaderboard are dominated by big smallmouths caught from the same 15-mile section by anglers targeting mostly offshore current breaks. The bites in the area are generally scarce, but the quality of the fish is well worth the lack of quantity.

On day two there was a flip-flop atop the leaderboard between day-one leader Dave Barnes, Sr. and the amazing Ray Hanselman of Del Rio, Texas, who now has the pole position.

Going into the final day as the leader, Hanselman is poised to do the unthinkable in FLW history: win an unprecedented four Rayovac FLW Series events in a row. He has already won all three Rayovac Texas Division events this season and he’s eyeing the grandest of grand slams – a Rayovac Championship win.

Friday Hanselman took the lead with an 11-pound, 14-ounce catch of smallmouths that gave him a two-day total of 30 pounds, 14 ounces, which constitutes a 2-1/2-pound lead over second-place Barnes.

“It was a harder day today,” he says. “Yesterday I had eight bites; today I only had five bites. Yesterday I caught big ones; today I really only caught one good one. So, yes, I’m leading, but things went downhill a bit today and it was much more of grind for what I weighed in.”

Hanselman is dialed in to the big smallmouth program. He is throwing large reaction-type baits and he says he can virtually predict when he’s going to get a strike by the tug of the current in the stretch of water he’s running.

“I can feel it when I’m about to get a bite,” he explains. “I’m fishing offshore current breaks and most of the time I can feel the current pulling on my bait. But then the bait will get sucked in behind one of those rips and it just goes dead – when that happens my hair stands up because I know I’m fixing to get slammed.”

“And the cool thing about it is those rips and voids in the current change minute to minute based on how the water is flowing and wavering around,” he adds. “I might throw at a spot for 10 minutes and suddenly hit one of those rips that was not there previously. That’s where those big ones are set up waiting to feed.”

Though Hanselman is not quite ready to reveal his list of productive baits, one thing’s for sure: there are no spinning rods, light line, drop-shots or shaky heads in his arsenal. He is all in with the big baits that, to his way of thinking, get the big bites.

Ten pros will lock up qualification for the 2016 Forrest Wood Cup this week, but so far only the Western Division representative is set. Charlie Weyer of West Hills, Calif., finished 11th and was the best of the Western Division this week. For that, he’ll get to make the trek back to Wheeler Lake next August.

The nine spots leftover will essentially go to everyone in the top 10 except whoever finishes 10th after Saturday’s final weigh-in.

Montevallo Wins on Seminole

The University of Montevallo duo of Justin Barnes of Monroeville, Alabama, and Adam Carroll of Carrollton, Georgia, won the YETI FLW College Fishing event on Lake Seminole Saturday with a five-bass limit weighing 23 pounds, 1 ounce. The victory earned the Falcon’s bass club $2,000 and a slot in the 2020 FLW College Fishing National Championship. READ MORE »

Gross Grabs Toho Lead

Day three of the FLW Tour presented by Ranger Boats on Lake Toho was tough on the leaders, but Buddy Gross stayed steady, rising to first from fifth with 19 pounds, 12 ounces. In total, Gross has amassed 62 pounds even through three days, which is just about a pound ahead of Darrell Davis, who caught 25-12 for a 60-15 total and rocketed up to second from 13th. Going into the final day, everyone in the top six is within 5 pounds of the lead, and the way the Kissimmee Chain is pumping out big ones, that counts as the slimmest of margins. READ MORE »

Toho Day 2 Coverage

Cox Leads Toho Slugfest

Day one of the FLW Tour presented by Ranger Boats on Lake Toho was the slugfest many expected. Leading the way is sight-fishing extraordinaire John Cox, who caught 31 pounds, 9 ounces and the day one big bass – a giant that went 10-9. In second, John Voyles wrangled up 24-15, and Scott Martin is close behind him with 24-12. READ MORE »

February 7, 2019

Toho Day 1 Coverage

Complete coverage of the 2019 Tour event presented by Ranger Boats on Lake Toho in Kissimmee, Fla. READ MORE »

February 4, 2019

FLW Live Schedule for Lake Toho

Weigh-ins at the FLW Tour Lake Toho event will be broadcast daily at 3 p.m. ET days one and two and 4 p.m ET days three and four. The studio broadcast, with live in-the-boat streaming, airs Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. - 2 p.m. with hosts Travis Moran and Peter T. READ MORE »

Top 5 Patterns from Okeechobee – Day 1

Roder Out Front on Big O

Okeechobee is normally the place of dreams. This week, however, it isn’t quite living up to its reputation. Day one of the Costa FLW Series Southeastern Division event on the Big O saw plenty of fish, though the quality bites were hard to come by. Troy Roder of Brookeland, Texas, set the pace early with a 19-pound, 15-ounce limit to grab the lead in the season opener – presented by Power-Pole – with a lead of over 4 pounds heading into Friday. READ MORE »